16 Messrs. Hancock and Embleton on a Gymnetrus 



On consulting however the accounts which have appeared of 

 the Sea Serpent, we find that they relate in most instances to 

 creatures widely different from the Ribbon Fish, such as whales, 

 seals, sharks, &c. seen under disadvantageous circumstances or 

 imperfectly observed. Still, though the Gymnetrus may not have 

 originated the idea of the existence of a marine serpent, we think 

 it not improbable that the occasional appearance of this fish may 

 very materially have tended to keep up among the Norwegian 

 fishermen that faith which they are stated to hold in the exist- 

 ence of such a monster. 



Of the habits of the Gymnetrus little can be said. The deli- 

 cate general conformation of the body, the smallness and tender- 

 ness of the mouth, the absence of teeth, the delicacy of the fins, 

 show clearly that it is a fish not organized for attack — the dorsal 

 crest and the ventral processes being obviously for the purpose 

 of balancing the body, and not for either attack or defence. Its 

 means of defence may consist partly in the bone-studded skin, but 

 chiefly in the adaptation for flight, evidenced in the compressed 

 form of the body and in the great length and power of the tail. 

 The small amount of half-digested food found in the stomachal 

 csecum goes so far to prove the non-rapacious habits of the Gym- 

 netrus, and make it probable that its habitual food is confined to 

 the spawn of other fish, and the soft, small, and defenceless in- 

 habitants of the deep. The absence of air-bladder seems to indi- 

 cate the sea-bottom as the natural resort of this fish, where its 

 food would be most abundant. 



The only evidence of its being indigenous on the north-eastern 

 coast rests in its having been observed six times since 1759. There 

 is little doubt of the remarkable circumstance that all the six have 

 been captured during the spring months. 



In conclusion, we have only to state, that the fish is now in the 

 possession of Mr. Edward Whitfield of Newcastle, who kindly 

 granted us permission to make the necessary examinations, and we 

 are happy in being able to state that that gentleman has expressed 

 his intention of presenting this rare fish to the museum of the 

 Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and New- 

 castle-upon-Tyne. 



Since wi'iting the above we have received a pamphlet entitled 

 '' An Account of the Rare Fish, Regalecus Glesne, caught ofi" Cul- 

 lercoats,'^ &c. In it we find a copy of a figure of a Gymnetrus 

 taken at Newlyn in Cornwall on Saturday 23rd day of February 

 1 788. This figure, with descriptive notes appended, is bound up 

 at the end of a copy of Pennant's ' British Zoology^ in the Banks- 

 ian library. Mr. J. E. Gray supposes this figure and notes to 

 be the authority for the various descriptions and figures of the 



